The defending Stanley Cup champion L.A. Kings were, not long ago, on the outside of this year’s playoff picture. Not anymore.

As of Friday, they’re now in the final Wild Card after shutting out the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday. Since early February, they’ve gone on an eight-game winning streak, and have won four of their last five games to get back into a top-eight spot in the West.

They’ve been in dire situations before. The San Jose Sharks can certainly attest.

And yet, when it matters the most, the Kings have suddenly been able to overpower their opposition, like it was as simple as flipping on a light switch.

“I think the games just got more important and I think the guys were getting sick of having to talk about why were doing so bad on the road,” Kings defenseman Drew Doughty told The Province on Thursday. “We decided to turn it around and start winning.”

Los Angeles Kings defenseman Drew Doughty was leaned on heavily last season, but it’s been taken to a new extreme in 2014-15. He’s gone from averaging 25:42 minutes per game to a league-leading 29:23 minutes this season.

That’s partially been a byproduct of necessity as the Kings have been without Slava Voynov since October, but it nevertheless begs the question if fatigue will eventually set in for Doughty, and potentially at the worst possible time given that the playoffs are just around the corner.

For his part, Doughty would argue that the status quo is fine.

“I’m not doing anything differently, really,” the 25-year-old defenseman told LA Kings Insider. “I’m just going on with my normal routine I’ve been doing for…this is my seventh year. So I haven’t changed too much. I’m just used to playing those minutes. It doesn’t seem like I’m any more tired or any less tired. I’m just used to it now. If I’m playing 28 minutes, I’m kind of like ‘What’s happening here?’ because I’m used to like 30-to-31 minutes. No, I’m not doing anything differently.

“Obviously on off days I’m trying to get a little more rest than usual and if we have optional practice, I take the option just to get some rest. Besides that, I’m just going with my normal routine and trying to just play my best.”

The Kings did acquire blueliner Andrej Sekera from Carolina to bolster the Kings’ defensive depth, but that hasn’t significantly eaten into Doughty’s playing time. Doughty has still logged 28:23 minutes per contest in March. Given that every game is critical for Los Angeles as it fights for a playoff berth, it seems unlikely that his workload will lighten before the end of the regular season.

The Los Angeles Kings have acquired defenseman Andrej Sekera from the Carolina Hurricanes, according to multiple reports. In return, the ‘Canes will receive a first-round draft pick (2015, as long as the Kings make the playoffs) and 19-year-old prospect Roland McKeown.

The deal should come as no surprise. With Slava Voynov suspended indefinitely, the Kings needed a d-man, as evidenced by Drew Doughty averaging 29:28 of ice time this season compared to 25:43 last year.

The Kings’ current eight-game winning streak also means they’re more likely than not to be in the playoffs — something that couldn’t be said at the beginning of the month, when the defending Stanley Cup champs dropped as low as 12th in the Western Conference.

Sekera, a 28-year-old pending unrestricted free agent, has two goals and 17 assists in 57 games this season while logging an average ice time of 22:46.

McKeown, a defenseman, was the 50th overall pick in the 2014 draft. He’s currently playing junior for the Kingston Frontenacs of the OHL.

Exactly two weeks ago, the Los Angeles Kings woke up in 12th place in the Western Conference. The defending Stanley Cup champions had won just four times since Christmas, were languishing five points back of a playoff spot, and even the most handsome of hockey bloggers had finally started to doubt them.

Yada, yada, yada, the Kings woke up this morning in a playoff spot. They’ve won six straight and, per Sports Club Stats, have seen their chances of qualifying for the postseason jump from 25.3 percent to 68.8 percent. As for those handsome hockey bloggers? They’re picking on the Ducks and Sharks now.

“We weren’t playing even close to our capability,” said defenseman Drew Doughty, per the Associated Press. “We’re seeing what we can do when everyone starts to perform. We’re happy with the way we’re playing now. But we can’t get ahead of ourselves. We need to keep winning. We have a lot of work left to do.”

Indeed they do, starting Saturday in Santa Clara, outdoors against their better-be-motivated rivals from San Jose.

What’s more, the Kings have played 31 homes games, compared to just 26 on the road, meaning their remaining schedule is heavy on away dates. And lest we forget, this is not a team that’s been good on the road this season (8-12-6).

The March 2 trade deadline also looms. Will GM Dean Lombardi add a defenseman? (Jeff Petry? Andrej Sekera? Roman Polak?) We only ask, because playing Doughty 30 minutes a night might not be the best way to get him fresh for the playoffs. With no Slava Voynov, he’s averaged almost four minutes more than he did last season.

The Kings know they aren’t out of the woods yet. When asked about the excitement of playing the Sharks in front of 70,000 fans Saturday at Levi’s Stadium, goalie Jonathan Quick made that point clear.

“You’re playing for two points,” he said, per L.A. Kings Insider. “I think we’re tied with them right now in the standings. That’s the only thing you’re excited about. It’s going to be a playoff-type game. We know we’re fighting for a spot.”

Colorado captain Gabriel Landeskog opened the scoring with his 14th of the season at 3:09 of the first period; however, it was all L.A. after that.

Jeff Carter tied it 1-1 at 1:16 of the second and Tyler Toffoli scored the eventual game winner at 6:24 of the middle frame as the L.A. Kings defeated the Colorado Avalanche 4-1 Wednesday night.

Drew Doughty had a pair of assists in the win.

“With the way the schedule is and the way the season is and the importance of every game, you need something out of everybody,” said Kings’ coach Darryl Sutter. “It’s really hard to play guys who have only got five or six goals. We need more out of [them]. If they’re going to play teen-minutes as forwards, you have to get more out of them, and what you’re seeing is some balance out of our forward group.”

L.A. has now won six straight while out-scoring opponents 23-12 during the win streak. The Kings now have the same point total as the San Jose Sharks (66) for the second wild card spot in the Western Conference.

Jonathan Quick made 42 saves in the win including 18 in the second period.

Semyon Varlamov stopped 21 shots in the loss.

“I can’t complain,” said Avs coach Patrick Roy. “I understand it’s frustrating because that was a big game for us. At the same time, I’m very happy with the effort. I’m very happy with how we competed. I’m very happy with how hard we worked, back checked [and] our fore-check was there.

“We got a lot of shots [and] we had a lot of traffic in front of the net. I thought we did a lot of good things. Nothing to show for it tonight, but I think this is how we have to play.”

Carter added his second of the night into an empty net. Dustin Brown had the other Kings’ goal.

Tonight marked the first of three games between the two clubs. They’ll meet again on March 10 in Denver.